“He was very conscientious and he wouldn’t let stories pass unless he was sure they were correct … “

this quote, from an anonymous source speaking to C4s Despatches programme, made me laugh today. How deep into the dark arts of journalism do you have to be to describe someone as being “conscientious” while listening to a recorded message from an illegally hacked phone. To make it worse, the public interest doesn’t even come into it. The Guardian

What sort of ideology are UK running now? Here in Finland is huge spending happening, like there is no tomorrow. And thats ideological too.

After spending money like crazy, and getting public sector getting bigger in the boom, they cant bust it, and digged Keynes out of grave. We have money, so much, that we are giving it to Greece too, you are lucky bastarts that you are out of eurozone.

Of course it is idealogical too, it is just that over here the Tories have been saying that there cuts aren’t. Yesterday’s admission by Cameron confirms what we on the left have always known: that they want a smaller state, no matter what.

For 10 years Carol Vorderman was also the public face of FirstPlus, a debt consolidation company and seller of loans to people already in hock. Last year an advertisement featuring her was criticised by charities. Credit Action said that an offer on one of the company’s secured loans acted like a “debt trap” that encouraged people to get into levels of unmanageable debt.

It has always been difficult to work out why such a brilliant and beautiful woman lowered herself to selling such dodgy perfectly legal loans to people already in lot of financial difficulty. It was not like she needed the money. At the time she was widely reported to be the best paid female TV presenter in Britain. Some say she was on as much as £900,000 a year from presenting Countdown alone.

Surely – with a reported IQ of 154 – she had done the maths. And worked out that the high rate of interest charged by FirstPlus would ultimately lead to further financial ruin for many of its customers. Indeed many of them are now facing bankruptcy and repossession.